Gearing up for June's big confab, Lions Health puts a full slate of jurors on the job

Cannes Lions Health juries for pharma and health & wellness were announced last week as run up to revamped show continues. (Bulik)

Let the judging begin. Cannes Lions Health has stocked up its pharma and health & wellness juries ahead of next month's awards, with four more U.S.-based judges joining the two Americans who head up each panel.

For this year's pharma jury, the high-profile contest tapped Carolyn O'Neill, who joined Centron as chief creative officer last year after 18 years at CDM, and Renata Florio, executive creative director at Ogilvy Health and Wellness, who's based in New York. The 10-member panel will be led by Rich Levy, chief creative officer at FCB Health.

The juries will sift through entries in the two categories, which were retooled for 2018 as part of a festival-wide revamp. The new rules draw more distinct lines between pharma and health & wellness submissions, and crossover entries are no longer allowed. Pharma could well benefit from the changes, with a clearer field for the industry's own entries in the category.

“As a creative, when you’re doing this work you know the regulated is the day-to-day work where there are more opportunities from a creative standpoint to break out,” Douaihy said. “I think (the change in submission rules) will help actualize very good work within those separate categories, and there won’t be blurring of the lines.”

Another change: The specialized Health Lions, now in its fifth year, will run at the same time as the broader Cannes ad festival for the first time.

It's a move pharma and healthcare creatives have wanted for years. With Lions Health running side by side with the prestigious and splashy Cannes Lions, the industry's work could enjoy a higher profile—and the health confab could draw more attendance, too.

“In past years, when health has gone first, you’ve seen a breakdown in between with people cleared out of Cannes from health and then a quick surge of people with the other festival starting up. This year there should be a nice impact and a steadiness to the show,” said Douaihy, who is a first-time judge but third-time attendee at Lions Health.